Gas ‘safe’ but no cause identified

by dburdon

Daniel BurdonDaniel Burdon is APN Australian Regional Media's Canberra bureau reporter, covering federal parliament and politics. He was previously a rural and general news reporter at the Morning Bulletin in Rockhampton and worked in Alice Springs for the Centralian Advocate.

PRIMARY producers on the Darling Downs remain unsure whether methane gas leaks bubbling up through the Condamine River are not due to nearby coal seam gas operations.

The bubbles were first recorded last year, with environmentalists and some farmers worried they could be associated with CSG operations.

But a report released by Natural Resources Minister Andrew Cripps on Monday, gave the area a clean bill of health.

He said the Condamine River Gas Seep Investigation Report had confirmed the leaks posed no risk to environmental or human health.

But Basin Sustainability Alliance chairman David Hamilton said the Government had still not identified the definite cause of the leaks and whether it was related to CSG.

"BSA looks forward to further announcements as to the cause and whether remedies need to be put in place, along with follow-up studies which will determine if these higher levels of methane are as a result of CSG activities," he said.